US Vice President, Polish PM talk Ukraine, NATO Eastern flank: WH

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US Vice President Kamala Harris discussed the situation in Ukraine with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a phone call, as per the White House.

In a statement, the White House said, “Vice President Kamala Harris today spoke with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland. The Vice President recognized Poland’s generosity and leadership in hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees and providing critical humanitarian assistance, while also providing vital security assistance to help the Ukrainian people." 

Harris and Morawiecki also discussed bilateral cooperation, most notably in the fields of civil nuclear power and security. Interestingly, the Polish PM wields the most important political role in his country, and thus it is quite unconventional that affairs of such high relevance get discussed with the US VP instead of the US President, who's the logical counterpart of the PM in this case. 

"The Vice President reaffirmed the enduring strength of the US-Polish relationship and efforts to bolster our collective security, including the permanent stationing of the US Army V Corps Headquarters Forward Command Post in Poznan, which [US] President [Joe] Biden recently announced as the first permanently-stationed US force presence on NATO’s Eastern Flank," the White House added.

It is worth noting that US President Joe Biden announced at the NATO summit in Madrid last June that the US will increase its military presence in Europe and establish a permanent headquarters for its Army V Corps in Poland.

Further contributing to the deterioration of the situation in Ukraine, the US government is reportedly preparing a new package of weapons supplies for Ukraine worth $1 billion.

The package, one of the largest so far, will include munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, according to Reuters.

The package is projected to be announced as early as Monday and would add to the approximately $8.8 billion packages of weapon supplies provided by the US to Ukraine since February 24.

The next weapons package had yet to be signed by Biden, according to the report.

All these announcements came amidst a global call to put an end to the war in Ukraine and look towards a peaceful solution to be established through diplomacy and negotiations which the West has been hindering by actively pumping Ukraine with weapons.